HANGING ON TO ITS TELEPHONE BOX – DEVON TOWN FINDS WORLD RECORD-BREAKING WAY TO KEEP ICONIC LANDMARK!
Kingsbridge Town Council took over ownership of the redundant phone box in Fore Street, Kingsbridge, from BT – and promptly turned it into a hotspot for music lovers.
The diminutive Devon disco marks a major milestone in BT's Adopt a Kiosk programme by being the 5,000th kiosk 'adoption' in the UK. Weighing three quarters of a ton, it stands eight feet three inches tall and sits on a base three feet square.
As well as handing over ownership of the red K6 kiosk to the town council, BT is helping to pay for a music system, a glitter ball and lighting as part of the celebrations around reaching this key national milestone.
Instead of making phone calls, the phone box will play records such as 'Hanging on the Telephone' by Blondie (1978) and 'Telephone Line' by Electric Light Orchestra (1976). Music lovers will be able to listen to a record by paying £1 to use a dial-a-disc-type record system.
All proceeds will be donated to Kingsbridge-based charity @115 which supports adults with learning difficulties.
The Kingsbridge phone box – well over 60 years old – appears to beat the current holder of the 'world's smallest nightclub' title, Club 28 in Rotherham, which reportedly holds a maximum of seven people, including the DJ. It has little more than half the floor space of the Rotherham disco and will usually only accommodate one music lover at a time…or two at a squeeze.
Of the 5,000 adopted kiosks across the UK, the Kingsbridge phone box is believed to be the only one to be used as a disco. The most likely uses for adopted boxes are as art galleries, notice and information boards, book exchanges and to house lifesaving heart defibrillator equipment.